lighting

Most designers have certain pet peeves. One of mine is recessed lighting... those unattractive round lights that often make ceilings look like Swiss cheese. Like our previous house in Santa Monica, our new house will be illuminated with sconces, chandeliers, and lamps. No recessed lighting allowed.

When selecting lights for our sink area in our Master Bathroom at Patina Farm, we were looking at several of our favorite lighting options...

Wall sconces are probably the most popular option. We often use sconces because they light your face from both sides and look lovely on either side of a mirror. Here are a few of my favorite bathroom sconce images that are very convincing...

Lately we've been selecting pendant lights in our bathrooms. Because the glow from pendant lights comes from above rather than the sides, several Velvet and Linen readers expressed concern. Wouldn't this type of lighting be less flattering, creating ugly shadows from above? Unattractive shadows at my age? No thanks!

Although this is true of recessed lighting (which is why they are banned in our houses), it isn't the case with pendants. Recessed lightbulbs only light straight down, but pendant lights provide all around illumination, similar to a chandelier.

The complimentary glow provided by the pendant lights above our sinks in our Oxnard Master Bathroom was so convincing...

image by Lisa Romerein

we decided to use these Schoolhouse Electric pendants in our children's bathroom.

We have finally made our lighting decision for our Patina Farm Master Bathroom sink area. Because our bathroom will feel like a greenhouse, I wanted all of the pieces to be a little rustic...not too formal. I found some vintage pendant lights with twisted rope cords and simple milk glass shades. They look similar to this School House Electric version, except my pendants are finished in unlacquered brass.

Because we don't want to hide the beauty of our Waterworks Etoile goose neck faucets...

only a small lip of the sink will be exposed, similar to this image that I shared before.

Well, another couple of decisions made! They are pouring the house slab on Monday, and then the framing begins. Yay!

Happy week!

xo

Brooke

If you would like help creating the home of your dreams, email me about our design services. You can also purchase many items found here on Velvet and Linen as well as "to the trade" furnishings through Giannetti Home. Email Kelly about the details.

When I did my post about my office, I mentioned my plan to use a the Regal French Chandelier that I found in the Wisteria catalogue for $249.00.

I got a few e-mails telling me that they thought I could do better. I took these comments to heart. Was I really settling? Was this lantern not pretty enough? cheap looking? too kitschy? As an interior designer, should I be above finding items in a catalogue?

I started looking for other alternatives. I found this great looking lantern from Authentic Provence, but at $3,500 it was a bit too authentic for my budget.

Suzanne Kasler's Honore Lantern is beautiful. It is one of the only lanterns that I found that had a glass bottom. This is a very important feature when looking for a lantern to put above a dining table, desk, or other work space. At $1,050.00 it wasn't completely out of my budget, but I kept wondering if it was that much better than the Wisteria lantern. Plus I was also thinking of doing a matching lantern above my farmhouse table. Two Wisteria lanterns would be $500. Two Honore lanterns would be $2,100. I could think of a lot of other ways to spend that extra $1,600!

I decided to wait until my lantern arrived before I made my final decision. Well, it came last week, and I really liked it!

The finish is just the right color for the room, and the scale of the lantern is perfect.

The question that I kept asking myself about the lantern has now been on my mind quite a bit. As a designer (or anyone who follows design) do I have to abandon the things I love once they hit the mainstream? Are my beloved treasures junk once they hit a catalogue?

I think many of us asked ourselves that question when we received our most recent Restoration Hardware Catalogue. Not only has Restoration Hardware discovered Belgian style, but apparently they are following us to our favorite antique shops!

Steve found these vintage eye glass molds at an antique shop in Maine...

Only to see them a month later in the Restoration Hardware catalogue!

If Aidan Gray starts ruffling the edges of books and selling them in bundles....

What about my hotel silver? I'm sure it is only a matter of time (minutes or seconds) until I start seeing copies in catalogues. Will it be time for a garage sale?

It's an interesting time for design. I don't think there has ever been another time where beautiful design has been so accessible. In this situation, is it still ok to love the original things that are copied. What about loving the copies?

I would argue that we should do as we always have done: buy and surround ourselves with the things we love. It's the way in which we combine and edit our treasures that creates our personal style.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. Do you agree with me, or do you think that mass design means it's time to move on?

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